The Spelling Bee at Amane

My dear friends Benz and Golf run an English School as a Christian Ministry. Wednesday, I went to their school to help them run a Spelling Bee for the Students and on Friday I acted as if I was the MC for a show as I interviewed the Students, taught them, and played a game in English with them. I love how as Christian ministries in Bangkok, we help one another out and work together as a team…in Unity (as we should as an entire body of Christ).

The Pics above are of the students at Spelling Bee. I would say for example, “What is vegetable?” and the student would say, “Vegetable, V-E-G-E-T-A-B-L-E, vegetable.”…

The little girl in the pictures is Bam and she is Benz and Golf’s daughter. The baby is Camp and he is their son (look at his amazing head of hair =) ). All the adults are the staff.

Exciting thoughts to think about for this School in the future…

We are looking into what it would cost for them to have an English Camp in Colorado. Benz and Golf would like it to be Christian. So we have thought about having a youth group/college group in Colorado have a mission’s trip with these students…Do service projects, have a Christian Concert, a Sports Day at the park, Go to a Christian School and share cultures, Have a cultural food sharing day, go camping, etc. This is something I would also love if you were praying for God’s will in this potential opportunity for us in Colorado to share God’s love and the gospel with the Thai students at Amane English School.

Cooking Sundays

Sunday Evenings have become a ministry opportunity to have people over and fellowship. They are also a time for me to learn how to cook Thai dishes that I love. I have learned how to make a red and a yellow curry dishes, Cashew Nut Chicken, Grat Na (a noodle soup), and Sushi ( a Japanese dish ;-) ) so far. I am still working on making them as well as my cooking teachers.

Night Out with the Girls

This past Friday, I went out with a couple of our campus students on a girls night out to the floating market. We went and ate dinner, dressed up in traditional Thai clothing, and took many pictures together. We had fun being girls. To add to the girl talk I will share with you an awkward moment. So, when we see “foreigners” we assume they do not know the Thai language. When I say we, I am including myself. So, these two “foreign” men walked past us and one was extremely striking. Not thinking it would be obvious, I asked the other girls in Thai, if they thought he was handsome too. To our shock as we all turned to take a second glance, both men turned around. They had obviously heard and understood the question. Haha. Well, although it was awkward at least we made them feel better about themselves, right? =)
Let me tell you a little about the girls that came with me on the girls’ night out. Jane is a Christian and she is on fire for God. Jane wants to serve God in everyway possible. She has a servant’s heart. Gring spent the night and she came with me to prayer time, then to Mahatthai, and to lunch. At lunch we talked more about my faith and how she felt at prayer time, etc. She said that she believes about Jesus. She said that she is studying Christianity now and she wants to compare it with Buddhism and Muslim. I was so excited to hear about this step. I am encouraged that she has a deep desire to research and compare. Now, we can pray that she sees the evidence of God and truth as she studies. The other girl with us, Bow, is not a Christian. I am building a closer relationship with her. She is teaching me to make my favorite foods here. It all started when I said, yes I love Thai food. and then she said “me too! I like Japanese food also-especially sushi”. Praise God, since being here I love sushi now too. So, this added to her excitement. She told me, “I will teach you to make every dish you want to learn.” So, this will be the way I will continue to spend quality time with this young lady. Please pray for our time together.

English Classes Stopping

This month my English Classes are coming to an end. We have been praying for the interns to raise their support to come here…they are not close to coming and will not be here by September as we had hoped. So, without me here, the English ministry is going to have to go on hold until a new intern can come and teach. My heart has been very saddened by this. We have built such strong relationships with my students and a handful are truly interested in Christianity-searching and seeking for themselves. So, I worry about “the ball being dropped”. I hate feeling like I am dropping people to the wayside. These are people that I care about and I want them to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. At the same time, I know that God’s timing is perfect and He has a plan and purpose for this ministry and each of my students. I have to trust Him. It is a cycle for me to feel defeated and not understand when things to not go the way that I see as the “perfect way”. Yet, God’s way always stands the best and is the best. So, I have given this worry, this stress, this burden in my heart to the Lord. And I have been praying about important individualized time with the people in my classes; quality time where I can share the importance of Christ with them on a one-to-one basis before I head back to the States.

Lice

About 12 days ago I got the horrible news that I had lice in my hair. I did not believe it at first, because I thought lice was only in hair that was oily and dirty. I found out this was not true. I have had lice for almost a month probably because there were eggs in my hair as well. Yeah…I know you are probably thinking…disgusting. Go ahead! Think it! I did and I still do! And it is funny how once one person knows about it here, everyone knows about it (something I would have rather not had everyone and their mother be in on). This whole lice thing was devastating to me. You see, I have become Thai in my heart and there is one thing very important to every girl. This is her hair! Most of you know that I am a hair person already. I like new hair styles and colors that are fun. Now…I like long hair…like at least to your waist... Trust me, this is an important thing for us Thai’s ;-) When I first found out about the lice I thought I would have to shave my head. I felt like a leper in my head. But, all the Thai’s around me consider lice a “no big deal” kind of thing. Many said “Oh, I have had that” and a few said, “I just had that last month…I might still have them in my hair.” I could not believe it! But I got the chemical shampoo and I have stayed up late nights going through every inch of my hair on my own. And then having my friends pick through my hair and make sure they are all gone. We can praise the Lord that the Lice is gone from my head at this time! Now, everyone says that the Lice came from the children at Mahatthai 3 (Our mercy ministry). I am there often with the children and apparently many of the children have lice. And now I know that lice jumps and after two weeks you can have eggs and two weeks later those eggs hatch.
So, last Saturday, I was at Mahatthai—with my new lice free hair-and I was for the first time aware of the fact that when picking the children up, their jumping on my back, sitting in my lap, etc…Their little heads of hair touched every inch of my head of hair. Within ten minutes of a sitting down for Joy Kids, one of the girls said that the little girl in my lap had lice. I got real stiff for a second and then realized that this is my ministry. I can’t let this get in the way of loving on these children. I just have to be aware of the lice and now take precautions for myself. So, from now on, my hair is in a tight bun every time I go to Mahatthai. And every Saturday evening, when I shower, I use the lice treatment. So therefore if any lice jumped onto my head, I will kill it before it can do anything-like lay eggs and multiply. =)
The fun part now is that today, we shampooed all of the girls heads of hair with the lice killing shampoo. We gave them each shower caps as they had to let the shampoo sit in their hair for 15 minutes. It was sweet because they all felt so beautiful with their shower caps on. Too Cute! Next week we will do the process of shampooing again and I will try to remember my Camera so that I can take pictures of this memory. This will not cure the lice issues of the community but, it will help a little.

Petrabun Campus Trip

So lately my friends have been calling me Miss. Detailed because if you ask me about something, I like to give details. So, well I am going to give you the details of this trip! I left on Thursday with three of my friends/co-workers to prepare for the Campus Club (About 60 people) to join us on Friday Evening. We went around and bought the food for all of the students. We spoke to the women who would be helping us prepare the meals. We bought flowers and plants for gardening (they are beautiful). We bought the necessary items for each of the service projects at the school and at the mushroom farm. We prepared the sleeping arrangements for the students and staff (In the school rooms, people’s houses, and a resort). So Thursday was the 5hour drive to Petrabun. Then we went shopping for our supplies for the weekend. After that, we arrived at P’Tang’s parents’ home. I learned how to make “Khao Pot med-ma-mueng” (Cashew Nut Chicken). Whoo Whoo!! We ate dinner and talked. Then I had some God time until we went to bed.
Friday morning after I had my God time, I decided to go for a jog. The fun part was when P’Tang’s cousin (5 years old) put her shoes on too. She was determined to go with me. To my surprise she had an excellent little sprint…until she led me into a “Monk Only” area. Yes, I felt that we were not supposed to be there. All the monks looked at us, and then the oldest came over to us. I know basic rules about not touching monks and always giving your seat up on pubic transportation for a monk….but I did not know what to do in this situation. P’Tang’s niece started jabbering to the Monk (I could not understand what she was saying) but I knew that she was not being as respectful as she should have been to the Monk. She didn’t even “Wy” him. So, I smiled said I was sorry and we left. She was tired and said she wanted to go home. So, I dropped her off at home and continued my jog (staying clear of the off limits Monk area). When I returned we had “Cow Pat” (Fried rice) for breakfast. Then I got ready for the day and we went and cleaned a lady’s home-preparing it with the sleeping arrangements ready for the coming campus students. When pulling out some mats we had some fun surprises of a dead gecko and then a lizard and its 6 eggs. One of the eggs broke in front of me. It was very interesting…but I felt bad when the egg broke because the lizard was watching from the wall (I know some of you are thinking…it’s just a lizard). After this we went to the school and helped the preparations for the evening meal. Once that was completed, Jane and I went and played with the children. We played volleyball and then got them to play some tag games. A couple hours of this, and then the campus students arrived in their big bus. We ate dinner together and then had an evening of songs and games with the campus students and the kids of the school. Tim also shared about the gift of having Jesus as our Best Friend. Once the evening activities were over, we made sure all the guys were in the set aside rooms in the school and the girls were taken to the different homes in the village.
On Saturday morning we got up early and went to the school. Everyone ate breakfast together. Then we started on our service projects (painting water tanks, cleaning and painting the bathrooms, putting in a garden, cleaning the grounds, putting together a mushroom farm, etc.). I spent the day cleaning and painting the water tanks. By the end of the paint job I had blue paint speckled all over me. It was a good time. Once the service projects were complete we packed our things and everyone piled into the bus. The bus was fun because it had “disco lights” and music playing. We had a two hour bus ride ahead. So eventually I joined the dancing crew in the back. IT was a blast! When we arrived at our “camping”-resort spot, I climbed up this hill to the top to see the stars…it was beautiful. Then we settled in our rooms and met as a group in an open area. Here we did team building things, sang a few songs, and David gave his testimony. An extra highlight was how there were buckets of coals that we roasted marshmallows in and made smore’s from. They were good…well I really liked the graham cracker part—because crackers are expensive around here and graham crackers in particular are expensive and rare….so this was a huge treat!! Late into the evening, a handful of us stayed up and worshiped God in song. I soon found out how “old school” I am with the worship songs that I do not know…haha =) It was a wonderful night—up till 3:00am.
Sunday morning I woke up at 5:15am to catch the sunrise. Then my friend Bond and I spent time in worship and studying the Bible together. Others came up and joined us for different parts of this time with God. It was a perfect start to this Sunday day. The day was filled with sight seeing for the students. So we rode around in Song Taos and stopped at many beautiful and historical places. My favorite was the one where I thought I was hiking to a waterfall (not hearing the water)…but it was a steep as the incline (the back of Pikes Peak)…yet it was tropically slippery instead of dry gravel/rock. When I arrived at the top to my surprise there was a cow stuck at the top. But the look out was gorgeous…like a painting of luscious rolling hills and many shades and dimensions of greens. Lastly we stopped at a waterfall…it was cool…but at the same time it personally grossed me out…it was really dirty brown water. It was not like Colorado waterfalls =) I asked if it was always this color and I was told no. So, I would love to see it with clean water! It was a magnificent fall and area to go to. That night we ate dinner and headed back to Bangkok. The Bus arrived back at Bangkok at 1:45am. I was exhausted and ready to sleep!

I just told you all about the trip. Let me tell you about the inside motivation, purpose of this trip. UCF is our club on the campus. Our students for the most part are not Christians. They know that we are Christians, but we are building relationships with them and sharing Christ with them as we build relationships with the individuals. This trip has a few purposes. One to be a club of “Service”-giving to other communities (we hope to carry this with us on other service projects throughout the year). Two to help the group of students to feel connected and bonded with one another and the club and Three to share the gospel with them. We had a Introduction to Christianity the following Wednesday after this trip and many students came to it. It is neat watching God work. People are seeking God…others are coming to things that we have because they feel close in friendship with us. It is so wonderful to see. A handful are now coming with us to serve at Mahatthai. This excites me because at Mahatthai we are sharing God’s word to the children and with these students here, they too are hearing the important truths we have to share. Others are hanging out with us at our houses and the church. Will you please pray with us for these relationships to continue to grow closer and the students to feel connected with us as well as their hearts to be opened to knowing God personally?